How to Write 餐 (cān) — Meaning “meal; to eat”

Imagine you are eating a meal (食) from a can (cān sounds like 'can'), and after eating you yawn (欠) because you are full. The bottom part has two tiny ice cubes (冫) to cool your drink.

Write the top part 食 first, with the radical order: 人, 横, 竖提, then the rest. A common mistake is writing the bottom left as three dots (氵) instead of two (冫); it is 次, not 氵+欠. Also, the bottom right 欠 must have the 'person' stroke on the right.

餐 has a bottom part that looks like 次 (冫+欠), while 餮 has a more complex bottom (殄, with 歹 on left and 人+彡 on right). 餐 is a common word for 'meal' or 'to eat', whereas 餮 is rarely used alone and only appears in 饕餮 (tāo tiè), a mythical gluttonous beast.

餐 appears in everyday words like 餐厅 (restaurant), 早餐 (breakfast), and 点餐 (to order a meal). It is used both as a noun ('meal') and a verb ('to eat', e.g., 用餐). Culturally, Chinese people often greet each other with '你吃了吗?' but 餐 is more formal; you see it on menus and restaurant signs.

Common words containing 餐 include: 餐厅 (cān tīng) — restaurant; dining room; 早餐 (zǎo cān) — breakfast; 点餐 (diǎn cān) — to order a meal.